Sanitary seat cover



AprilA 25, 1939. H. s. TooHY SANITARY SEAT COVER 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed July 6, 1936 INVENTOR April 25, 1939.

H. s. TooHY SANITARY SEAT GOVER` 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July E5,A 1936 INVENTOR Patented Apr. 25, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 3 Claims.

This application relates to sanitary seat covers for covering toilet seats, particularly those provided in public places.

The danger of infection from contact with public toilets is well recognized and many sanitary covers adapted to be placed over the seats of public toilets for a single use and to be disposed of after such use have been suggested and have gone into wide commercial use. In general, however, such covers have been cumbersome to handle and dimcult to keep in place while in use, or where they have been capable of being held more or less securely in place have required the handling of the seat ring, an operation which is distasteful to many people who would otherwise use such covers.

It is an object of this invention to provide a sanitary seat cover which can be applied for each individual use and removed and disposed of without touching the seat or that part of the cover which has been in contact with the seat.

A further obj ect of the invention is to provide a sanitary seat cover which may be used without discomfort or inconvenience and without danger of its becoming misplaced so as to expose the seat which it should cover.

With these and other objects in view my invention contemplates a bag of paper or other inexpensive material with width as great and approximately equal to the width of the seat ring which it is intended to cover, and of length approximating the length of the seat ring, and having corresponding openings in its top and bottom sides, the lower of which extends farther towards the closed end of the front than does the upper.

In the accompanying drawings I have shown a preferred embodiment of my invention, but it is to be understood that this and the particular modific-ations discussed are intended only as examples and as illustrations in order to make clear the invention and the method of making and using the same to the end that others skilled in the art may understand how the invention may be applied in various forms and adaptations according to the requirements of each particular use.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 shows a seat cover embodying my invention in inverted position.

Fig. 2 shows the same cover applied to a seat ring such as is commonly used on public toilets.

Fig. 3 shows a blank died out of flat paper stock.

ready for folding and pasting to form a seat cover, e. g., as shown in Fig. l.

Fig. 4 shows a sheet of paperl stock going through the several steps of a continuous process of manufacture from the uncut stock to the completed seat cover as shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 shows a completed bag resulting from the process of Fig. 4; and

Fig. 6 shows another form of blank suitable for making the bag by a continuous process.

Referring first to Fig. 1, I have shown therein a sanitary seat cover which consists of a simple flat paper bag I6 having its free sides II, I2 and I3 closed and its fourth side I4 open for insertion of the seat ring. In this gure I have shown the cover upside-down so that the smaller opening I5, preferably of somewhat oval shape, which is in the upper side of the bag shows through the larger opening I6 in the lower side of the bag. As shown in this ligure the opening I6 extends farther forward than the opening I5 and advantageously extends also to the back edge I4 of the bag so as to leave the upper side of the bag exposed at the back to facilitate separation of the two sides for insertion of the seat ring.

In Fig. 2, I have shown a similar seat cover in position upon a seat ring I'I of usual form (shown in broken lines) In placing the cover on the seat ring the two edges I I and I3 of the cover are held and gently pressed toward one another so as to expand the bag. At the same time the edge I4 of the upper side of the bag is laid on the front end of the seat ring IT and the bag then pressed gently downward so as to separate the upper from the lower sides of the bag. The bag is then pushed back into the position shown in Fig. y2, all of which is easily accomplished without touching in any way the seat ring I'I or any other part of the fixture. If, as is commonly ythe case, the ring I'I is freely hinged so that it rests upon the toilet bowl, it may be lifted by the bag itself and without touching the ring, since it is always possible to slip a part of the bag over the ring before such lifting is necessary.

The bag may be made out of any inexpensive sanitary sheet material. It is preferable, however, that it should be made of a disposable paper which is readily disintegrated by soaking in water so that when removed it can be thrown into the toilet bowl without any danger of clogging the drain. At the same time it should be of a relatively strong material which will not readily tear when it is applied to the seat ring as already described and will not readily disintegrate in use. It is also desirable that the material be capable of slight stretching without tearing in order that it may adjust itself to the curvature of the body and ments are best suited by a material similar to a strong toilet tissue but preferably somewhat heavier, or a light paper towelling or unsized kraft paper.

The fitting of the cover to the seat ring when in use may be further improved by the use of radial slits from the inner opening, and especially near the back, which permit the paper near the opening to fold down over the inner edge of the seat. A similar and in some respects better result can be obtained by a fold or folds or creping extending radially from the back of the opening advantageously to the back edge of the cover. Or, if the overlap is suiiiciently Wide by leaving unpasted the seam 34 between the opening l5 and the back edge 4B as shown in Fig. 5.

In Fig. 3, I have shown a sheet of paper cut to a form suitable for folding and pastingV to make the seat covers shown in Fig. l. The lines along which the folding occurs are indicated by the reference characters I8, I9 and 2D and the pasting areas are stippled and indicated by the characters 2| and 22.

In Fig. 4, I have shown suitable steps for forming a similar seat cover by a continuous process. This process is designed for carrying out on a bag forming machine; but inasmuch as these machines are Well known in the bag making art it will be unnecessary here to describe the construction or operation of the machine.

In this continuous process a sheet 3D of suitable material is fed into the machine and is first perforated along the lines 3l, 32 and 33 of each section which is to form a single cover. Paste or glue is applied to a thin strip 34 along one edge of the sheet and the paper is cut along the lines 35, 36 and 31. The sheet with these perforations and cuts and paste applied, then passes under a suitable die on which the side portions are folded back along the lines 38 and 39, overlapping at the center along the pasted edge 34 and are pressed together to form a seam.V

At the position indicated by the reference character 40 the folded and pasted sheet is engaged by rolls operating at a higher speed, which tears the individual covers from the sheet along the perforations. Due to the gusset cuts 41| and 42 and the more advanced position ofthe perforation 32 as compared with the perforations 3l and 33, this operation leaves a projecting flap which VVin the final operation is folded back over the top and pasted to form the complete article, as shown in Fig. 5.

'It will be noted that in the process just clescribed the seams at 34 and 32 appear on the top of the article instead of on the bottom, as in the examples illustrated in Figs; l to 3. It will be understood that a similar operation could be performed With a seriesof blanks cut as shown in Fig. 3. As will be evident, however, the operation will be more diiicult because of the relatively short edges which are tobe folded as compared with the more continuous edges shown in Fig. 4. Furthermore, in Fig. 4 the tab formed behind the perforation 32 which is folded over the closed end is cut from the portion of the sheet which would otherwise be Wasted in the openingy 31, whereas, if the blanks as shown in Fig. 3 were cut in continuous succession, the wastage would be increased.

It is an advantage to have the end ap at 32 on the upper side of the cover, since this serves to reinforce the cover at the point where it may be subjected to greatest strain. However, it is also desirable .that the upper surface should be smooth rather than seamed, and if this is desired the blank may be formed as shown in Fig. 6 with 'the flapsV 45 and 46 folded back and pasted onto the underside of the upper portion 41, instead of folding over the outside as shown in the other figures. This blank also permits cutting the flaps from the openings without wastage.

What I claim is: 1. A sanitary cover for use on ordinary toilet seat rings comprising a paper bag of inside dimensions larger than the sides of such seat rings, having its back edge open to a width at least equal to the width of the seat ring and its op- 1 posite end and side edges closed, and having in its top a hole corresponding to but smaller than the hole in the seat ring and another hole below the first in the bottom extending farther toward the closed edge at the front than the first named hole. Y

2. A sanitary seat cover as dened in claim 1 Yin which the hole inthe bottom extendsto the Vin which the hole in the bottom extends to the rear edge of the bag and the front edge of the bag is closed by a apof dimension at least as small as that of the opening at the rear of the bag.

HELEN S. TOOHY. 

